This invention relates generally to oil or petroleum clean-up, and removal, as from bodies of water, and more particularly, to the efficient use of oil absorbent waterfowl feathers for this purpose.
Rapid removal of petroleum from water bodies, of as after an oil spill from a tanker vessel, has become crucial importance to protect the environment. Reference is made to the Valdez, Ak., spill, in 1989, in this regard. There is a clear and compelling need for apparatus to enable efficient removal of such oil. While plastic booms have been used, they generally serve to confine floating oil in an area, and become of less use as the oil dissipates, hardens, or drops in the water. There is need for apparatus that will rapidly and efficiently absorb the floating oil, while also confining it as the oil is being absorbed, i.e., a double function means. Oil-consuming microbes do not permit reaccess to the oil removal from the water body, i.e., the oil is lost.